Pathfinder Player Companion: Blood of Angels (PFRPG)

Touched by benevolent beings of the good Outer Planes somewhere in their ancestry, aasimars are viewed with either awe or fear by all who know of their celestial heritage. Hailed as scions of angels at best or otherworldly bringers of heavenly destruction at worst, there is no doubt that aasimars hold a very special place in the world of mortals, and all know to be wary of their actions in the presence of an aasimar.

Blood of Angels presents a player-friendly overview of the aasimars of the Pathfinder campaign setting, as well as new rules and information to help players create unique and interesting celestial characters for any type of game.

Inside this book, you’ll find:

Expansive entries on aasimars’ origins and upbringings, their psychologies, how others perceive them, and the beliefs such angelic beings hold in the face of their celestial mark.

A table of 100 variant aasimar abilities to further customize your blessed character.

A detailed look at the six most common types of aasimars based on their celestial heritage, including alternate ability score modifiers, skills, and spell-like abilities for each.

New curses, inquisitions, and subdomains for heavenly oracles, inquisitors, and clerics.

New masterpieces for aasimar bards and the martyred bloodline for sorcerers whose celestial ancestors made great sacrifices.

A host of new traits to help make your aasimar character truly unique, as well as dozens of bodily features that distinguish your celestial character.

Written by Amber E. Scott

Each bimonthly 32-page Pathfinder Player Companion contains several player-focused articles exploring the volume’s theme as well as short articles with innovative new rules for social, magic, religious, and combat-focused characters, as well as traits to better anchor the player to the campaign.

The new oracle curses are interesting to say the least, and not what I had been expecting after reading Blood of Fiends.

The Blackened curse gives you burnt hands and upper arms, causing you to get a hefty penalty to 'weapon' attack rolls. This also adds fire spells to your spells known over time. I have to wonder... does this penalty apply to ray and touch attack spells? I guess it should since we're allowed to take 'Weapon Focus (ray)'. Anyway, interesting flavor, and I don't think the bonus spells that it grants overlap with those from the Flames mystery.

Wolfscarred Face curses you with a deformed and wolf-like face and a permanent chance of failing to cast spells which have verbal components (but you don't lose the spell). You get a bite attack and Magic Fang spells added to your list in return. My inner munchkin tells me that a Dual Cursed Wolfscarred/Deaf oracle is a workable combo since Deaf makes all your spells silent spells, effectively negating the former curse. Of course, you would still need to hide your face, and would also have to deal with the horrible roleplaying side effect of being deaf, lol. Anyway, I guess this curse would generally be somehow linked to the Agathions?

And wolfscarred face? It sounds both very cool and in an odd way dismaying. I already use beast-folk when I can, and it's sad to think that they've got to go everywhere hiding behind a mask (oh well, I can always run games/campaigns in Nex or Varisia or the River Kingdoms, they're used to oddballs there!).

The Blackened curse gives you burnt hands and upper arms, causing you to get a hefty penalty to 'weapon' attack rolls. This also adds fire spells to your spells known over time. I have to wonder... does this penalty apply to ray and touch attack spells? I guess it should since we're allowed to take 'Weapon Focus (ray)'. Anyway, interesting flavor, and I don't think the bonus spells that it grants overlap with those from the Flames mystery.

I looked at Weapon Focus since you mentioned it, and I think you have it backwards.

Weapon Focus wrote:

Choose one type of weapon. You can also choose unarmed strike or grapple (or ray, if you are a spellcaster) as your weapon for the purposes of this feat.

So it specifically calls out unarmed strikes and rays as things that aren't weapons, but that you can take the feat for anyway -- and if they aren't weapons, then it stands to reason that melee touch attacks aren't either.

So it specifically calls out unarmed strikes and rays as things that aren't weapons, but that you can take the feat for anyway -- and if they aren't weapons, then it stands to reason that melee touch attacks aren't either.

Ooo, good catch. So, basically if you have this curse you're going to be trying to use only spells and special abilities for attacking. Interesting....

So it specifically calls out unarmed strikes and rays as things that aren't weapons, but that you can take the feat for anyway -- and if they aren't weapons, then it stands to reason that melee touch attacks aren't either.

While that is a reasonable reading, there is actually a FAQ on this. Quick Version: rays are generally treated as weapons for all purposes. So, the curse would in all likelihood apply to them (though I don't have the book, and couldn't say for certain).

So it specifically calls out unarmed strikes and rays as things that aren't weapons, but that you can take the feat for anyway -- and if they aren't weapons, then it stands to reason that melee touch attacks aren't either.

While that is a reasonable reading, there is actually a FAQ on this. Quick Version: rays are generally treated as weapons for all purposes. So, the curse would in all likelihood apply to them (though I don't have the book, and couldn't say for certain).

The book just says that you get a -4 penalty on all 'weapon' attack rolls.

Hmmm, so the end result of this is either A: you get the penalty to all attack rolls or B: you get the penalty on all weapon attack rolls AND rays?

The problem with A is that if this was the case there would have been no reason to call out 'weapon' attack rolls specifically. The problem with B is that there is no reason why you should get the penalty on rays but not get it on melee touch attacks.

Then, there is also the issue that if you follow the curse as written then you would also get a -4 penalty to bite attacks (if you have one).

I'm beginning to think that this is a case where the the intent really is that the penalty only applies when you try to wield actual physical weapons (or use natural attacks) with your burnt hands, and that we need to just ignore the rule technicalities/implications of what exactly counts as a weapon.

Edit: Also, I think I should mention one of the bonus spells that this curse grants is Scorching Ray. I think that they wouldn't give you a ray spell if the curse itself made hitting with it much more difficult, though there is a possibility they figured that the BAB of the oracle class made up for it.

And wolfscarred face? It sounds both very cool and in an odd way dismaying. I already use beast-folk when I can, and it's sad to think that they've got to go everywhere hiding behind a mask (oh well, I can always run games/campaigns in Nex or Varisia or the River Kingdoms, they're used to oddballs there!).

I should have replied to this earlier...

The Wolfscarred face curse suggests that you will need to hide your face in areas that have problems with lycanthropes because you could easily be mistaken for one. So, Ustalav is a very bad area for a Wolfscarred (or any beast race) to travel around in, though I'm not sure how many other areas have that many lycanthrope problems.

And wolfscarred face? It sounds both very cool and in an odd way dismaying. I already use beast-folk when I can, and it's sad to think that they've got to go everywhere hiding behind a mask (oh well, I can always run games/campaigns in Nex or Varisia or the River Kingdoms, they're used to oddballs there!).

I should have replied to this earlier...

The Wolfscarred face curse suggests that you will need to hide your face in areas that have problems with lycanthropes because you could easily be mistaken for one. So, Ustalav is a very bad area for a Wolfscarred (or any beast race) to travel around in, though I'm not sure how many other areas have that many lycanthrope problems.

I guess a good portion of this simply depends on the GM.

Thanks for expanding on what's been said. And I seem to recall that rural Andoran has lots of problems with werewolves, and there's that one town in Varisia. Then again, you can always go and live in Kaer Maga, where Lamashtu herself could stroll down the street and no one would blink an eye.

Any one know something about the Martyred Bloodline? If so what spells/feats/arcana/bloodline powers does it get? I'm making a sorcerer for a home game and want to know if I should wait for this product to use this bloodline.

Any one know something about the Martyred Bloodline? If so what spells/feats/arcana/bloodline powers does it get? I'm making a sorcerer for a home game and want to know if I should wait for this product to use this bloodline.

It's all about self-sacrifice, probably need a high con, toughness and favoured class bonus in hit points to play one.

Take damage for a bonus, inspire allies, give hit points to allies...
Spells are things like endure elements and greater heroism.
It's a buff bloodline, really.

Hmm, so Friendship is (divine) magic? And with loyalty and whimsy (humor or laughter)... what, nothing for Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy*? XD

Seriously, they sound different in good ways. Arrgh, must wait so long to get this book!

GeraintElberion wrote:

Oh, and the consecrate spell metamagic is great stuff.

Can we get a hint on what it does? I'm guessing it's something like the 3.5 version, which made spells good-aligned.

* -- For those not getting it, in the MLP:FiM show the six main characters each have their own 'Element of Harmony', and three of them are Friendship (which is magic, literally so); loyalty; and laughter.

It's a solo quest no longer! It's not fair to have fiendish and not celestial totems! Are we trying to encourage our players to pick evil options?

If you want them, or any other options for Team Good that the game currently lacks, Rock The Vote! Even if stuff you'd like has already been mentioned in that thread, let your voice be heard! Especially since that's perhaps the best and last chance to get good flavor support for other classes.

Just got the shipping notice for this book. Really want to see the range of aasimar art present. :)